“No,” he agreed, swallowing. “But I can promise I’ll fight like hells to stay, for you.”
Ashley’s eyes shimmered, she blinked it away stubbornly. “You confessed. Back there, before I stabbed you.”
Nate let out a nervous chuckle. “Yeah, great timing, right?”
She finally glanced at him, really seeing him.
“Look… I feel something, too,” she said in a tiny voice. “But I don’t know what to do with it. I’m…badat this. And every time I care for something or someone, the world rips it away.”
“You care,” he said, voice softening. “That’s enough for now.”
Ashley exhaled, leaning her shoulder into his.
Just enough contact to say ‘stay’.
Time had leapt and I still hadn’t gotten any sleep at all. Third shift was me and Faelin.
Faelin shifted quietly by my side, her ginger hair still braided neatly. She was always alert and watchful, but tonight, she seemed more focused on staring at her boots than anything else.
“You look awake,” I tried sarcastically.
“You look like you wish you weren’t,” she returned with a faint smile.
I snorted. “Fair.”
For a moment, there was just the breathing hush of the ruined village. Faelin glanced towards where Malakai had returned, now asleep against the wall, still and facing me even in rest.
“I don’t think he’s dangerous,” she whispered quietly. “Not to us.”
Warmth bloomed in my chest. “He’s one of us,” I said. “He’s… home.”
Faelin gave a small nod. “I’m glad… I’m sorry I doubted you.” Her hesitation lingered like a feather in the air. I nudged her arm.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said.
“My friend was a lot like… Ashley. Hot-blooded, eager for adventure… a bit clueless,” she snickered and I couldn’t help smiling. “Not a single day passes without me missing her… But I don’t regret anything.”
I tensed, studying her carefully. “You… You had to end her?”
She nodded slowly. “Yeah… I was the only one she let close enough.”
I swallowed hard, remembering Malakai’s words: ‘that’s why you’re the only one who could’. I shook my head as if it would make it all go away.
Just because it had happened to Faelin’s friend, didn’t mean it would happen to Malakai.
“Get some sleep,” I told Faelin who had begun wavering. “I can handle the last watch.”
She didn’t argue, simply squeezed my forearm once and curled into her bedroll.
The quiet wasn’t peaceful, it was the world waiting inanticipation.
CHAPTER
24
The air was too still when I woke.
For a second, I thought it was the silence that pulled me from sleep, but then I realised it wasn’t silence. It was absence. The usual sound of Ashley’s restless shifting, her low humming, and the occasional muttered curse in her sleep were all gone.
